One of those rather simple and throwaway-able songs I turn out now and again. I suppose it's performable/recordable but it wouldn't be a high priority. Shoot, wouldn't be any kind of priority. The thoughts here are not very original and, I dare say, on the shallow side.

I DO NOT mistrust government. I mistrust human nature. Any institution in which people are involved can be misused, abused, corrupted. It is not the fault of the institution, per se; though some structures may more readily be subverted than others, all are ultimately corruptible.

This is true of more than just government, of course. All organizations -- businesses, religions, charities, even families -- have this same vulnerability. There will be those who abuse their power, those who subvert the system to their own ends, those who are irresponsible. There will be entrenched interests acting for their own good, while perceiving and believing it to be for the good of all. There will be those who see any thwarting of their personal desires as tyranny.

A perfect form of government will never exist -- not democracy, not monarchy, not the dictatorship of some earnest group of reformers. It can not exist for humans are not perfect. The best we can do is seek balance and keep an ever-vigilant eye on those in power.

And, perhaps, an even more vigilant eye on those who seek to be in power.

No more than a little throw-away parody, written with my talented niece,Mean Mary, in mind.

The internet has been very frustrating lately. Extremely slow and erratic via dial up and various pages simply have not been working for me, like my Excite mail and Twitter. Sometimes I feel like moving even further into the boonies and getting a manual typewriter...or a quill pen.

This piece is not 'about' the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio but was inspired by them. As with many of my poems, it is roughly accentual -- not free verse.

Once again spellcheck does not like one of my (legitimate) words -- aeon, in this case, cyphers, a couple posts ago. Ha, it doesn't like spellcheck either, even though it spells it that way at the top of the page!

Yes, a hymn or 'worship' song. I've written a very few overtly religious songs in the past but this is the first of its particular kind. Not at all surprisingly, it is pretty much in the vein of a typical Catholic song for services.

The music for the chorus sections (Come etc.) was finished before I wrote much of the verse lyric. Still working on the music for that part but it shouldn't take long. Unless I get distracted -- it's easy to get distracted around here.

So, what does one do with a work such as this? I'm inclined to think of it as essentially an exercise. I'm not planning to enter the Contemporary Christian field. Nor the Contemporary Catholic sub-genre, which would more friendly toward a piece of this sort. Though, strictly speaking, CC is a radio format, not a genre. Like Americana!

However, as it IS an Advent song, it might show up if I ever record some Christmas music.

I churned this one out rather rapidly and it is most certainly a candidate for rewriting. It incorporates a few phrases and ideas I've jotted down for essays (which will be forthcoming) but was actually precipitated by a news item about cave paintings I saw this morning.

addendum: late afternoon and I've a revised version up. Smallish changes, really, and there may be more. But probably not posted here.

Monday, March 21, 2011

A poem while raking up leaves in the yard as I get things into shape on Peanut Road. Lots to do. As always.

The carpenter bees are buzzing everywhere, thus the versifying. It's starting to look nicer, with some blooms out. They sort of distract one from the general shabbiness!

I've been attempting to compost pretty much everything. That includes my mom's disposable undies, a couple a day on average. Comes to quite a few after a while and I found that they simply were not breaking down well so I've taken to tearing out the absorbent stuffing (which actually helps hold moisture in the compost, a bonus) and then drying the paper part for burning later on. I had a lot of them I ended up removing from the compost pile but finally got them all done. No more undies scattered around in the yard to dry!

Incidentally, they will not burn well -- if at all -- with the absorbent material still inside.

Setting out more plants, as most Springs. And some won't take, of course. More Robin Hood Roses out front. They're looking great now but won't when the weather gets too hot and dry. They have all survived a couple of seasons though so I'm okay with them here. Done better, surprisingly, than the Firethorn (which is way too costly but I may be able to start my own in time).

I've finally managed to kill the oak out back via 'ringing,' thanks to the new big bow-saw. I was just never able to cut deeply enough into it before. I may go after some more now, including the large Live Oak out front. It would, eventually , be overhanging the house so it's best to be rid of it. It's surrounded by azaleas that haven't been trimmed since...well, sometime before I moved here. I'll cut them way back this year, after blooming, and be able to get in to the oak's trunk. The really large Red Oak north of the house is just to big for me to handle myself though and I wouldn't want it dead and dropping limbs on us!

I'd been budgeting to get it taken down professionally but now I'm thinking I'd better use that money to fix the roof (finally). I suppose I could even do it myself but it's a pretty big job. Speaking of the roof, I'm going to get up and paint the South-facing porch roof white soon -- it gets terribly hot under there on sunny Summer days and a coating should help.

What with being a caregiver being the major focus of my life recently, it's not surprising that I'd eventually pop out a song about it. Yes, it's a bit maudlin but what do you expect, given the subject matter?

There are a few poems I've turned out over the past ten years or so that relate to this in some degree, including the 'award winning' My Name (available in my chapbook,Pieces of the Moon), but this is the first song. Admittedly, it's pretty much only a lyric right now -- I simply wasn't hearing the music this time but I will eventually work it out.

I know, Buffy Sainte Marie already covered this concept quite nicely in Universal Soldier. Too nicely, maybe -- I've tried to write something a little harder-edged here. I like BSM's song and play it occasionally (of course I first heard it in the Donovan version). Sometimes I tackle her Piney Wood Hills, too -- great song.

Anyway, my song here is intended to be somewhat more rock, more driven. Music is in progress -- I have the chorus part down, need to work on the verses. Btw, the Red Cougar song I posted a couple days ago is complete, music-wise.

A bit of old-fashioned versifying. Iambic pentameter, by golly. The idea was to make up a list of excuses for avoiding love...some of which perhaps have some validity? :) As ever, I'm quite aware that this sort of pastiche should not quite be taken seriously by either the author nor the reader. And, as ever, the stuff I post here is early draft (generally) and open to revision.

Red Cougar

Anne's Cougar was red,made in '67;Entered ina race to heaven.Faster than the boatshe'd been rowing toward God;Got behind the wheelto outrun her facade.

Anne's Cougar growledof lies and truth,Yearning forthe eyes of youth.Gave up controlin the driver's seat;Found no Mercyalong the street.

This song (music in progress) is, fairly obviously, referring to Anne Sexton and her suicide. Definitely grew this one from my Punk roots and it would be played as such. It is not intended as a call for offing oneself!

Although it did not take a particularly long time to finish this little piece, the form did morph a couple times before settling down to this fairly strict bit of structure. Anyway, I do feel this way about the arrival of Spring -- it's not something we find on a calendar but something that comes when it comes.

A rather bad poem, truthfully. My first thought for this concept was to develop it as a song but I recognized that it would need far more forceful, more visual, imagery for the idea to work. So it's just a so-so bit of rhymed poetry.

* * *

WillFest is coming up again in little over a week. And once again, I'll be missing out on it. I'll look at the bright side of it and think of all the money I'll save staying home.

Speaking of money and home, I'm finally investing in some plumbing hardware for the place. I've been only turning on the water into the house briefly a couple times a day because of my very leaky faucets. I could live this way (and take care of Mom too) indefinitely without it being any real bother at all but if I ever want guests here, I'd best have running water, I suppose...

* * *

Today is the birthday of Dr Seuss. I'll admit that I missed out on his books as a kid -- I never saw one until I was eight or so and by then I was way beyond them and reading all the adult books on our shelves. I truly learned to read from my siblings' tall stacks of comic books. I well remember plowing through the Classics Illustrated version of Red Badge of Courage in the back of the Plymouth station wagon on our way to New Orleans, summer of'57. Was I really going to want to read about green eggs and ham after that?